Chestnut had won this annual – and bizarre – contest for the last eight years. Afterward, Chestnut smiled in defeat and told the media that he had been "looking for competition" and "I finally have it."

He started as an junior at Evergreen Valley High School in San Jose, when he signed up for a 5-pound burrito-eating contest at Iguana’s “Home of the BurritoZilla” near his grandparents’ house. He won and pocketed $1,000.

At first, he said, his parents were skeptical of him downing 20,000 calories at a time. But now, he said, they see that he’s making money and being flown across the world – including for a TV stint in Korea. “Sometimes now, they help me cook up hot dogs,” he said.

“The first few years were miserable,” he said. “I was bloated, had fatigue.”

But he added that he’s figured out how to “fine tune my regimen” by balancing exercise, fasting and taking lots of vitamins and minerals.

As for him and Chestnut, Stonie said they are far from best friends but they do hang out occasionally. That the No. 1 and No. 2 competitors in the world both hail from San Jose, might not be so unusual, he said.

“Living in California, people think a little differently,” he said. “We go for what’s outside the box.”